LAHORE, April 18: The governments of Punjab and NWFP have agreed to maintain close liaison for the arrest of hardened criminals, recovery of stolen cars and control of drug-trafficking.
The decision was made at a meeting between Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Akram Khan Durrani — who was here on a day-long visit on Friday.
The two leaders also discussed the Legal Framework Order, but details of the discussion could not be known.
The Punjab chief minister earlier hosted a luncheon for his NWFP counterpart, which was also attended by local leaders of the MMA.
At the meeting, he conveyed to Mr Durrani the Punjab government’s concern over the disappearance of proclaimed offenders and dreaded criminals in the NWFP and emphasized the need for a mechanism to track them down.
Chaudhry Pervaiz said that almost all the vehicles snatched or lifted from various cities of the Punjab were taken to the NWFP, where they were either dismantled or had their chassis numbers changed for sale in different parts of the country.
He said the gangs of car-snatchers busted in the Punjab invariably included residents of the NWFP and emphasized the need for breaking the inter-provincial network.
The chief minister also talked about drug-smuggling from the NWFP to the Punjab and said the two governments could tackle it with concerted efforts like close liaison between police and administrative officers of the two provinces in bordering towns like Attock.
Chief Secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa and IGP Masood Shah gave proposals for the arrest of proclaimed offenders and recovery of stolen vehicles in the NWFP.
The chief minister mentioned the recent visits of the Sindh governor and chief minister to Lahore, and his tour to Karachi. He said the exchange of visits had helped a great deal in understanding the ground realities and evolving a consensus on various inter-provincial issues.
He said the exchange of visits between the leadership of the provinces and even the administration should continue so that inter-provincial differences and issues like the LFO might be resolved.
The chief minister said the Punjab and NWFP could cooperate with each other in the agriculture and industrial sectors. They could also adopt joint measures to upgrade and process the perishable agriculture produce.
He said the Punjab would welcome investment from the NWFP private sector and extend all possible facilities to industrialists from the province. Earlier, the Punjab chief minister, provincial ministers, advisors, senior officers and local leaders of the MMA received Mr Durrani at the airport.
Mr Durrani also called on Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool at the Governor’s House to discuss matters of mutual interest.
The NWFP chief minister left for Islamabad by road in the evening as weather conditions did not favour air travel.